Is anyone out there?

There are officially 10 days left till Baby G’s due date. I finished work last week and have been at home trying to keep my feet up to avoid swelling and trying to take as many naps as I can as sleeping at night has become difficult. Considering I’m so close to delivering, I actually feel pretty good. Nervous of course, but that’s natural.

I’m a bit of a planner, so it’s safe to say we have everything ready for baby’s arrival, my bags are packed for the hospital, baby has plenty of clothes, diapers etc. and the bassinet is set up. We hadn’t planned on having the baby’s room ready, but somehow we pulled it off. I think it helped that we didn’t want a traditional pink or blue baby’s room. What we called our “orange” room which used to house Joe’s drum has become Baby G’s sanctuary. We decided that orange is a pretty cool color for a baby and didn’t even have to paint! We’ve added our little touches, some great modern furniture and some super cool wall decals that baby can check out while on the changing table or in his/her crib. It’s a baby’s room that anyone who knows us would say, “It’s so you!”

I recently made the mistake of watching “A Baby Story” on the TLC channel. I couldn’t get through the whole hour.

I’m sure anyone who’s ever had a baby or dreamed about having a baby has watched this show. For those who aren’t pregnant it will make you long to feel what it’s like to be pregnant and will cause you to call your husband/partner and request that you have a baby asap. For those of us already pregnant, and swollen and emotional it makes us cry. For me the tears weren’t just of joy either.

I have done an amazing job (and will try to continue to do so) of staying positive about my labor experience. Early on in the pregnancy I was so desperate for pregnancy knowledge that I bought and read any book I could get my hands on. Once I realized that sometimes you can reach a breaking point where you just have too much information, I stopped reading, stopped wondering and decided to just enjoy my pregnancy, enjoy the changes in my body and put aside the reality that I will someday in the future have to push this baby out.

Watching “A Baby Story” somehow made everything too real for me. I think I need to hold on to the fact that I still have about 2 months left before I need to face labor, so why worry about it now?

What I noticed not only about “A Baby Story” but also about talking to women who have already had children, is that everyone wants to share their horror story. Is there some sort of prize you existing mothers have for sharing your birth story and making sure that the mother-to-be with whom you are sharing the story understands that yours is THE WORST birth story known to man? I don’t get it? Every mom I have talked to says something along the lines of “It’s the worst thing ever.” Really? Geez, then why do women keep doing it?

Call me naive, but I need to, for my own sanity, believe that labor and birthing is the most natural thing a woman’s body can do and that my body will know what to do when the time comes. Not to say that modern medicine shouldn’t play a role, but I certainly don’t want to go into the experience with the baggage of every mom I have talked to. So as the day approaches, I will continue with my positive visualization, continue to work with my doula (yes I decided to have one) and my husband to prepare my mind and body for the experience and just hope for the best. And if all hell breaks loose, there is always the epidural. To happy labors…